Thursday Vital Interests Blogging

Rick Perlstein emails to recommend this Corey Robin essay as "the most brilliant thing" he's read about the rhetoric of American interests. I think you can't actually read it unless you're a London Review of Books subscriber (or someone emails the text to you), but I offer the suggestion as food for thought. It's called "Protocols of Machismo" and appeared in the 19 May 2005 issue.

My take is that the world really could use a brilliant examination of the rhetoric of "vital interests" in American political discourse but that Robin doesn't quite have the goods here. If others have suggestions for further reading on this topic, I'm interested.

Comments

Matt,

I'd suggest Arnold Wolfers' 1952 essay "National Security as an Ambiguous Symbol," published in Political Science Quarterly. It's old, but still brilliant.

Posted by Peter | August 23, 2007 9:39 AM

Re "I think you can't actually read it unless you're a London Review of Books subscriber "
--------
Dude, there's a thing called Google which can search for things like, oh, "Protocols of Machismo"

Not that it's worth bothering. So-called intellectuals have a self-inflicted disability:
They can't discuss a subject clearly because they have to do airy handwaving with Big Ideas -- instead of discussing specifics. Plus they have to throw on a thin veneer of faux sophistication by quoting some fools who died centuries ago.

Alan Dershowitz ,for example, was a stupid asshole for advocating torture. Not because it goes against the Great Conversation of Western Civilization re Morality but because the scenario he used to justify it -- the "ticking bomb" was so implausible. But Alan couldn't know that because he never got off his ass and looked at the specifics of how tradecraft works. Nor did Alan address the very slippery slope that starts with use of torture and the very dangerous threat to a society that it poses.

Similarly, arguing about whether Bush or Rumsfeld made the right policy is beside the point. Far more worthwhile to point out that they lied on specifics and have stretched Executive privilege far beyond all reason in order to cover up their responsibility. That they hide from any forum that might call upon them to defend their actions.

The Democrats should be examining Bush's records in depth --- and beating the living shit out of any Republican who impedes that investigation. So that Americans know that if they want their rights preserved, they need to throw out every single goddamm Republican in the next election.
Instead , the Democrats nervously follow Bush's lead in an elaborate Kabuki Dance --scared stiff that at any moment Bush is going to change their lines without warning or do an unusual dance step.

Pathetic.

Posted by Don Williams | August 23, 2007 10:05 AM

"Vital interests" are the business interests of supporters of whomever happens to be President at the time. It could be fruit companies in Central America or supporting trade with China. If it's vital to the bottom line of the political backers of POTUS (Democrat or Republican) then it's in our 'vital interests' to interfere.

Posted by joejoejoe | August 23, 2007 10:11 AM

http://againstwot.com/articles/2006_02_01_articles_archive.html

I'm not sure if this is the entire article or not.

Posted by shnooky | August 23, 2007 11:22 AM

http://www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/001534.php

Here's another link. Everything is free on the internet, more or less

Posted by graeme | August 23, 2007 2:12 PM